2005 World Summit

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The 2005 World Summit, 14–16 September 2005, was a follow-up summit meeting to the United Nations' 2000 Millennium Summit, which led to the Millennium Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Representatives (including many leaders) of the 191 (now 192) member states met in New York City for what the United Nations described as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in the areas of development, security, human rights and reform of the United Nations."

Summit

The summit was billed as the "largest gathering of world leaders in history," and featured appearances of numerous heads of state and heads of government. The majority of those present addressed the U.N. General Assembly, and gave speeches reflecting on the U.N.'s past successes and future challenges. All 191 member states gave an address in some form- if the head of state or government was not present the nation's foreign minister, vice president, or Deputy Prime Minister usually sufficed. The meetings were presided over by the Prime Minister of Sweden, Göran Persson.

The pre-summit negotiations were blown sharply off course by the appearance in early August at the U.N. of United States Ambassador to the U.N. John R. Bolton, appointed as a recess appointment by U.S. President George W. Bush. The position had been vacant since January, with responsibilities handled by professional U.S. diplomats. Bolton swiftly issued a list of new demands (including dropping the use of the words "Millennium Development Goals"), which days before the summit had still not been settled. Some observers contended that on the eve of the summit the U.S. struck a more conciliatory tone than expected, something partly credited as a consequence of the outpouring of international support for the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina.

As well as discussing progress on the Millennium Development Goals (often abbreviated as 'MDGs'), and re-iterating the world's commitment to them, the summit was convened to address the possible reform of the United Nations; much of this was eventually postponed to a later date. An exception was the endorsement of the "Responsibility to Protect" (known by the acronyms RTP and R2P), a formulation of the "right of humanitarian intervention" developed by a U.N. commission and proposed by Kofi Annan as part of his In Larger Freedom reform package. The "Right to Protect" gives the world community the right to intervene in the case of "national authorities manifestly failing to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity". There was also broad agreement at the summit to set up a new Human Rights Council.

During the summit, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption received its thirtieth ratification, and as a result entered into force in December 2005.

The inaugural session of the Clinton Global Initiative was held in New York City to coincide with the 2005 World Summit, and attracted many of the same world leaders.

World Summit outcome

At the end of the 2005 Summit the contents of a document, known as the World Summit Outcome Document, was agreed to by the delegations that attended. The pressure group The United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK) contend that:

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted by the United Nations Security Council on April 28, 2006, "Reaffirm[ed] the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" and commits the Security Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict.

Trivia

The World Summit was featured in the 2000 film X-Men, released five years before it actually took place. In the film, the Summit took place on Ellis Island and the mutant terrorist Magneto tried to mutate all the leaders with a machine he built.

Further reading

• United Nations' 2005 World Summit homepage
• Draft outcome document, 5 August (pre-Bolton-requests) (PDF)
• U.S. Revision Package (PDF)
• 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, World Health Organization, 15 September 2005
• Summary of Outcome (PDF)
• CBS News, 12 September 2005, "At U.N., Bolton Softens His Tone"
• The Guardian, 10 September 2005, "World summit on UN's future heads for chaos: UK leads last minute effort to rein in U.S. objections"
• Hugo Chávez' address (He proposes the UN be moved out of the US)
• PM Sharon’s Speech at the United Nations Assembly September 15, 2005.
• AlterNet, 19 September 2005, "A Triumph for Decency at the U.N." - on the "Responsibility to Protect"
• Ian Williams, The Guardian, 20 September 2005, "Annan has paid his dues: The UN declaration of a right to protect people from their governments is a millennial change"
• Environment and Poverty Times - Summit 2005 Edition
• Alicia L. Bannon, The Yale Law Journal, "The Responsibility To Protect: The U.N. World Summit and the Question of Unilateralism"

Footnotes

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Last updated on Friday February 22, 2008 at 07:42:26 PST (GMT -0800)
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